Coastal city of Da Nang has become an attractive destination for domestic and foreign tourists with many special cultural events such as fireworks competitions, parachute performances, etc., along with sunny beaches and dozens of world-class resorts which have attracted visitors. The number of visitors to Da Nang from Russia, South Korea, Japan, etc has enjoyed an annual rise of 30-50 percent in recent years. This, on the other hand, has posed challenges for travel agencies and travel management agencies in terms of human resources, especially tour guides.
Bui Van Tri has worked as a professional guide for Japanese tourists for over a year. Tri used to be a guide for English speaking tourists, but when the needs for Japanese guides increased, he learned Japanese and became a guide for Japanese visitors. In Da Nang, there are just over 10 Japanese-speaking guides, so Tri has to travel day and night from Hue to Hoi An, and My Son Sanctuary. During peak seasons, Bui Van Tri runs from one tour to another without respite.
Over the recent years, the number of tourists from Japan, South Korea, Russia and Thailand to Da Nang has been increasing. So, the tour guides are not enough to serve those groups. Mr Le Tan Thanh Tung, Head of Travel Department, Vietnam Tourism Joint Stock Company (Vitour) said: The whole company has 200 guides, but Russian and Korean speaking guides number only about 5. Initially, the company had to adopt temporary solutions, inviting old Russian and Chinese speaking guides to sign short -term contracts. In the long term, Vitour will review signing contract with the training schools which provide Russian, Japanese and Chinese courses.
Currently, Da Nang has only the University of Foreign Languages to provide intensive foreign language courses, but it cannot meet the market demand. So far, Da Nang Tourism has more than 800 guides, including more than 500 guides for international tourists. Few of these guides know Russian, Japanese, Korean or Thai. Mr Tran Chi Cuong, Deputy Director of Da Nang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said: "Da Nang has enough tour guides, but most of them are English speaking guides. The city has so far almost no language training courses. When the high season comes, there is a serious lack of qualified guides, making management difficult. Recently we have worked with the University of Foreign Languages to offer professional training courses for students to overcome this limitation.”
The lack of orientation and human resource planning is detrimental to the local tourism sector. So, Da Nang tourism industry should have a long term vision to create qualified human resources to better meet the needs of visitors.
T.Huyen
Vietnamese
October 2024
Hanoi